Rockport Utah a Brief History and Photographs of Homes

ROCKPORT UTAH A BRIEF HISTORY AND PHOTOGRAPHS OF HOMES Edited and Compiled by Thomas E. Brown FORWARD Several years ago I was asked to speak at sacrament meeting program in the Peoa Ward. The Peoa members of the Daughters of the Utah Pioneers had planned the program and I was asked to speak about the pioneers in the valley. Since no one specifically asked me to speak about Peoa, I focused my remarks on my hometown of Rockport. Days were spent researching the subject. Books and documents in my possession provided a base, but additional information was needed. Much time was spent at the Church Historical Department reviewing documents and soon enough information had been collected to fill the assignment. After the meeting, several friends asked for copies of the talk. The information was not typed and it needed to be put together better. All this time I had a set of wonderful photographs showing the homes in Rockport taken by Florence Siddoway Walsh Hunter years before. The photos had been shown to friends who said they would like copies. Because of the interest in both the talk and the photos, I decided to get the history typed and the photos enlarged and labeled so they could be put together in some printed form. There may be misspelled names, wrong dates, incorrect information, omissions and a host of other problems with this document. Some problems may have existed in the materials I used and some may be of my own making. This is not a complete history in any sense of the word, but I hope you find some enjoyment and satisfaction in reviewing the history and the photos just as I have. Sincerely, Thomas E. Brown 27 January 2002 P. S. If you find errors or omissions please let me know and I will correct the information and reprint this material at some future date. You can reach me at the address and phone number shown below. Thomas E. Brown 4230 Browns Canyon Peoa, Utah 84061 Ph:435-783-5212 A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROCKPORT Much has been written about the exodus of the Saints from Nauvoo, Illinois to the valley of the Great Salt Lake. Some thought that once they arrived in "Zion" they would never move again. But that was not to be. Many of those first Saints to enter the valley were soon to find that they and others who followed them would be called upon to build new settlements, some close to Salt Lake and some far away. Colonizing parties organized by President Brigham Young established over 350 communities in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Nevada, Arizona, Colorado, California, Nebraska, and Kansas. This history is written about a little community called Rockport, Utah. It was situated 12 miles south of Coalville, Utah (approximately four miles south of Wanship and four miles north of Peoa). It was located on the west side of the Weber River with the town center being located near the mouth of Three Mile Canyon. It was what was called a "string town" with homes stretched along a three mile section of old US Route 189 (now State Road 32). Soon after arriving in the Salt Lake Valley, Brigham Young organized and dispatched exploring parties in virtually every direction from the valley. In 1848, Parley P. Pratt explored the "Big Canyon" east of the valley. He found that it was a less rugged route than the one through Emigration Canyon used by the first pioneers entering the valley. Big Canyon today is known as Parleys Canyon. He also explored the Snyderville basin and what became known as the Parleys Park area. In 1853, Brigham Young directed W. W. Phelps to take an exploring party through Utah to locate places suitable for settlement of Saints immigrating to Zion. In September of 1855, W. W. Phelps and Thomas Rhoads explored the Summit County area. They followed Silver Creek into Coalville and the Weber River into the Kamas Prairie. What they thought about or said about the area that would become Rockport is not known. Records show that Rockport was first called Crandall after the canyon east of the town. It was organized as a township by legislation in 1854. There is no record of colonization until 1860. By this time the main route from the east into the Salt Lake Valley ran through Three Mile Canyon over a ridge and into the Snyderville basin and then down Parleys Canyon. Records show that the stagecoach carrying the first mail to Salt Lake took this route in January 1860. That year, the last of ten handcart companies entered the Salt Lake Valley (on 24 September). No doubt they took the route through Three Mile Canyon. One record states that a road was completed through Silver Creek Canyon in late 1861; even so, it is clear that the Three Mile Canyon road was still used during the same period and for years afterwards to haul coal from the coal mines in Coalville to the silver and lead mines in Park City. 1 The first settlers in Rockport are listed as having arrived in 1860 from Omaha, Nebraska. They were Henry Reynolds, Edmund Horton, and Henry Seamons and their families. Edmund Horton and family crossed the plains as part of Captain Franklin Brown's independent company in 1860. They stopped in Rockport without first going to Salt Lake. (This suggests that the main road into the Salt Lake Valley went through Three Mile Canyon. Perhaps they were asked to leave the company and settle this area.) They camped with their wagons in what became the center of Rockport. When Horton arrived, he found Henry Reynolds camped nearby. Reynolds had crossed the plains in a previous company that same year. Henry Seamons and his family were also in the Franklin Brown Company. They lived in their tents and wagons until they could construct log houses out of the nearby cottonwood trees to shelter them from the on coming winter weather. The winter of 1860-61 was very severe and the settlers were poorly prepared for it. They lived on dried bread during most of that winter. Little hay was put up and they had a difficult time getting their limited number of livestock through the winter. The cooperative Christmas dinner they held shows their condition. The men jointly purchased a piece of beef. They agreed to pay for the beef in grain after the following harvest. They mortgaged their anticipated crop for a bit of fresh beef for their Christmas dinner. Furniture was roughhewn from cottonwood and alder trees growing along the Weber. Chairs, bedsteads, tables were among the items constructed. In some cabins puncheons (split logs or heavy slabs with a smooth face) took the place of dirt floors. The following spring a water ditch was surveyed from the Weber River and a town site laid out. This was done under the supervision of Jesse Fox. The town site was called Enock. This little hamlet was called Enock or Enock City for several years. Additional settlers arrived during the following year including: Thomas Gibbons, William H. Staker, John Malin, Cooper Williamson, Carrie Williamson and her two sons, Peter and Nels Peterson, and Thomas Holland. During the first three or four years the area was so dry that even the hay crop was light. Frost, coupled with short growing seasons, so stunted the wheat and potatoes that the wheat was scarcely fit for human consumption and the potatoes were very small and inferior in quality. John Cooper built the first rock house in Rockport in 1860 with the aid of a mason named Joseph Olpin. Oliver Gibbons last owned this house. For several years the settlers had their flour ground in the Salt Lake Valley. The mill would exchange good wheat for their inferior wheat at a reasonable discount. These trips were often a source of much hardship. Late in the autumn, the harvest was threshed. Frequently, while returning form Salt Lake, the men would get caught in an early snowstorm. When this happened, it often took two weeks to make the round-trip journey between Salt Lake and Rockport - a distance of about 36 miles one way. 2 Henry Reynolds was the first presiding officer at Rockport, having been selected by the people in 1860. Edmund Horton and John Ames later became his counselors. In 1862 Henry Reynolds moved and Edward Bryant took charge of local affairs in the little settlement under the direction of Bishop Abraham Marchant of Peoa. Bishop Marchant presided over the Saints in Peoa, Kamas, Rockport and Wanship. For several years Brother Bryant acted without counselors. President Brigham Young appointed William Wallace Cluff as presiding bishop over the settlements of Wasatch, Summit, and Morgan counties in February 1865. Jesse W. Fox surveyed the lands of the settlers in 1861. A schoolhouse measuring 18 feet wide by 28 feet long was built of hewn logs in 1863 and served both as a school and a meetinghouse. In 1867 the Rockport settlement was more fully organized by Bishop William W. Cluff and Edmund. Marchant, when Edmund Marchant and John M. Malin were chosen as first and second counselors to Edwin Bryant. This presidency served until 1877. On 19 January 1866, the Territorial Legislature approved the establishment of a territorial road from Great Salt Lake City to Wanship (then the county seat of Summit County) through Silver Creek Canyon. They appropriated $6,000 for the construction of the road. It was built in four sections and toll gates were to be erected in each section. Information is not available on when the road was completed.

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